‘Why must all sports be fiercely competitive?’

Were you one of those schoolgirls who never got picked for anyone’s team (or at least not until you were the last one left)? I know I was. I hated ‘games’: I broke my finger playing netball and narrowly avoided losing an eye when a hockey ball hit me on the eyebrow, causing an impressive shiner. Hockey to me was all about having my ankles hit hard with a wooden stick, and tennis, though it was one of the few games I did understand the rules of, was all about failing to hit the ball. In sixth form, when we could choose our sports, I chose table tennis, at which I was surprisingly good (mainly because it didn’t require much strength) and dancing, which I loved. It’s notable that only one of those two choices is competitive. 

Why is it assumed these days that everyone will be interested in sport? And why must all sports be fiercely competitive? There are board games that are designed to be co-operative; surely it’s not beyond the mind of humans to devise a physical exertion that would involve working towards a common goal, rather than aiming to thrash each other? It seems everything has to be competitive these days, from boxing to preaching (yes, there is a ‘Preacher of the Year’ contest).

Probably not to my own benefit, I was brought up in a family where intellectual achievement, or achievement in the arts, was highly prized, but physical prowess was, if anything, denigrated. My mother referred to any hearty sporty type as a rugger – well, she used a word that rhymes with ‘rugger’…We assumed (most unfairly) that anyone who had concentrated on developing their body had probably not done much to develop their brain, and that the broader the shoulders the narrower the mind. More recently I have learned that most physical games require a great deal of mental strategy and concentration and that sportspeople can be perfectly articulate (or not), just like anyone else.

‘Sporty’ language in the Bible 

If we turn to the Bible, St Paul talked a certain amount about competitive sports. Here’s 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, for instance:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

As a sports failure, I don’t find this one of the most congenial of his utterances, especially his reference to boxing which I consider a brutal and barbaric pursuit. And “I strike a blow to my body” sounds alarming in these days of self-care and wellness. However, we can at least take his message that if we want to ‘succeed’ in our walk with Jesus, we need to exercise self-discipline and rein in those parts of ourselves that are less conducive to the aim of loving God, neighbour and enemy.

I was brought up in a family where physical prowess was, if anything, denigrated

And as he wrote to his mentee Timothy, Paul was able to say towards the end of his life: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). 

Health-giving benefits 

Completing a marathon or a Munro (a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 feet) is an achievement in itself, even if you didn’t come in the top three. Apparently recent research has shown that even watching sport on TV can have a beneficial effect on your physical health. This makes me feel more inclined to foster my recent interest in the women’s football, which is so much more engaging than the men’s – the women don’t do all the falling on the ground and writhing in exaggerated agony; they just get on with playing. All of which makes it particularly sad that the man who imparted this fact on the radio, the great health guru Michael Mosley, has recently died from going on what was supposed to be a health-giving walk, during which he collapsed from extreme heat.

In the end, it seems, both exercise and lack of it can kill you or cure you. It seems the ancient wisdom of ‘mens sana in corpore sana’ (a healthy mind in a healthy body) still holds true. Balance is all, as I thought to myself when I landed flat on my face in the garden yesterday while chasing the cat to put a collar on her. Now where are my swimming things? I think I need to get fitter.